what major?

[futurejd20]

Do Economics if you aren't sure whether law is right for you. It gives you a very nice back-up plan.

[Lanya]

First of all, I really agree with all the people who said that you should get a major in that field which most interests you (and where you have a chance at getting good grades as well!).

Having said that, one of my majors was in philosophy, and I think that I was very fortunate to major in that field.  First of all, it really helped me a lot, when it came to the LSAT.  In order to get a degree in philosophy (at least at my university), you are required to take an elementary course in logic.  Logic is hard, but if you learn it and become good at it, it will really help you on the LSAT.  For me logic was very hard, but I studied a lot and got a 4.0 in the class.  Then I took an advanced logic course and got a 4.0 in that as well.  When it came time to look over the LSAT, everything was familiar territory.  In fact, when I was taking an LSAT prep class, I found myself often giving suggestions to my instructor on what logical rules to use or how to diagram the problem, based on what I learned in my philosophy logic classes.

Also in philosophy you do a lot of analytical reasoning - analysis, critique and formulation of arguements - this is what philosophy is all about.  This is what the largest part of LSAT is also about: you're given an arguement and you have to analyze it - strengthen, weaken, adjust it, etc.  To someone who studied philosophy this sort of thing is nothing new: you've done this kind of analysis with very complex arguements every day as an undergrad.

Further, from what I understand, once you are in law school you will also have to analyze, critique, and formulate arguements, especially on exams.  And (from what I understand, I am not in law school yet) a lot of the work in law school will involve reading monotonous dry and complicated reading material, understanding it all, and being able to summerize and analyze it.  Well, if you've ever read, understood and analyzed Kant or Hegel, I think that you will be prepared for any reading that law school might offer.

Finally, in philosophy classes you write, write, write like crazy.  And your writing is about very complex ideas and arguements that you have to analyze and comment on.

So the point is that majoring in philosphy might be extremely helpful for a future lawer.  But you do need to like philosophy to choose it as your major and be able to do well in it.  Be warned that it is a tough major.

[Julie Fern]

pick major that allows you to feel superior to others on site like this.

[Kwertee]

Mathematics makes the LSAT seem easy.

[Julie Fern]

yes, but there awful lot of counting involved.

[XYZZY]

interest should only be one of the factors and weighted no more than 60%. 
You should consider other factors including:

1) Employment prospects
2) Lifetime earnings
3) What future academic CAREER options does this degree allow
4) What future corporate CAREER paths does thid degree afford.
5) and also interest as a final factor

These additional criteria have nothing to do with greed.  It's the basis of how you're going to support your family and impart change on the world.  'interest' is one of the myths of the academic world that perpetuates the business.  The reality is degrees like sociology and humanities are probably the most interesting, but the lifetime penalty in career options is huge. 

in my case, i majored in electrical engineering and it is boring as hell.  laplace transforms, convolutions, fourier transforms, electromagnetics.... all boring as hell.  the reason for originally choosing this major is i was interested in medicine (radiology), but after that plan didn't pan out, i was still able to do some interesting things with the degree (radar, sonar, electronic warfare, cryptography, EEG pattern recognition) and it provided a high probability path into management.  Now, I'm also making use of the degree to transition into patent law.

the point being that people's interests change over time, so there is a certain amount of risk management/reduction that might be useful to consider.  It's also important to recognize that colleges/university is a BUSINESS that offers services for people's wants,  but not necessarily for their long term needs or demands of the corporate world where most spend 40+ years of their life.

(On another note, my GPA sucks ass compared to the sociology and liberal arts majors I just dissed)

[LaneSwerver]

pick major that allows you to feel superior to others on site like this.

That's why I majored in kinesiology.

[Julie Fern]

you studiexd sex like kinsey?

[LaneSwerver]

you studiexd sex like kinsey?

Yeah. It made college go by quickly.

[Julie Fern]

gotta love the internships!